Julie Ruff, By Melissa Renter?a - Express-News :
April 10, 2010

Kris Perez says she can’t remember not attending or working at one of the booths at the annual Poteet Strawberry Festival.

“I’ve been coming here my whole life — literally,” said Perez, a seventh-generation resident of Poteet.

This weekend, Perez once again was working at one of her hometown’s biggest events. This time, she was manning the soda booth sponsored by the local Rotary and FFA groups.

“It seems pretty good this year,” Perez said of the crowds Saturday afternoon. The three-day festival, which celebrates the area’s strawberry crop, concludes today.

Speaking like an expert on the festival’s offerings, Perez was busy directing visitors on what to try and where they could buy it. Besides the usual festival delights of roasted corn, cotton candy and other foods on a stick, the offerings, of course, included plenty of strawberries.

Chocolate-dipped or plain, in shortcake or ice cream, strawberries were a popular choice.

“I look forward to this every year,” Robert Kemp said as a he ate his first strawberry shortcake of this year’s festival. A San Antonio resident, Kemp said he makes the 30-minute drive to Poteet every year.

The shortcake he seemed to be enjoying so much wouldn’t be his last of the day, Kemp said.

“It helps support a good cause and I like it, so why not eat all I can,” he said.

The strawberry fest started in 1948 and has grown into one of the largest festivals in the state, attracting thousands of people each year, according to organizers.

Besides helping to promote the local strawberry crop, the festival raises money for scholarships and educational programs.

It has contributed an estimated $10 million to $12 million to the local economy, according to the festival’s official Web site.